Richard Brown, Minister of Innovation and Advanced Learning, held a telephone conference with Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley yesterday to discuss PEI’s expectations for increased federal funding for skills development to be included in the stimulus package that will be part of the federal budget delivered in January.
Minister Brown said both levels of government have an opportunity to ensure Island workers are able to keep their jobs during an economic downturn through skills development programs.
“We have requested more flexibility through the Labour Market Development Agreement to keep Islanders working during slow economic times with skills development programs,” said Minister Brown. “Through our labour market training programs we can retrain people and upgrade their skills on the work site. We need to offer upgrading to people while they are working.”
Brown said he also asked Minister Finley to renew the Older Workers’ Program which focuses on upgrading skills for older workers who are not ready to leave the workforce.
“We have had great success with the Passport to Employment Program which provides training for older workers in fields where there is a need for workers and we want to continue that program,” said Brown.
The ministers also discussed the need for initiatives to reduce student debt.
“We also discussed the issue of affordable and accessible post-secondary education,” said Brown. “The federal stimulus package should contain financial incentives for students to get the education and training they need to get a good job. We can see, for example, that the George Coles Bursary we announced last spring has produced higher enrollments in our post-secondary institutions.”
“Our message to the federal government is clear,” Brown said. “The stimulus package must contain short-term and long-term economic measures that will keep people working and ensure that we are well positioned to meet the demands of the economy today and in the future.”
Minister Brown also met with Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear who was in Charlottetown yesterday to announce eight million dollars of funding for PEI’s Nutriscience and Health Institute.
“I had a very good discussion with Minister Goodyear about both levels of government working together on initiatives that will bring research and development jobs to PEI, which will create jobs in a growing sector on PEI and will complement our economic strategy,” said Brown.